Critical Week: Send up a flare

This past week, the British Film Institute staged its annual programme launch event for the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, which kicks off its 28th edition on March 20th. But the big news this year was that the festival is changing its name to BFI Flare. The launch party was great fun, as always, attended by filmmakers, journalists and industry bods who become like a family this time of year.

As for screenings, we had Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in the occasionally entertaining action comedy Ride Along, Liam Hemsworth in the preposterous but sleek thriller Paranoia, the cleverly freaky indie revenge drama Blue Ruin, Del Shores' astute filmed play Southern Baptist Sissies, the marriage documentary 112 Weddings and the Canadian digital series Coming Out, watched in one go. I also saw a few films that will be at BFI Flare next month.

This coming week I will catch up just in time with three Oscar nominees: Hayao Miyazaki's acclaimed animated epic The Wind Rises and the buzzy docs 20 Feet From Stardom and Dirty Wars. (This leaves only one Oscar-nominated feature I won't have seen on Sunday night: foreign-language nominee Omar.) Also this week, we have the sequel 300: Rise of an Empire, the animated Wrinkles and three more docs: Bridegroom, Next Goal Wins and Errol Morris' The Unknown Known.

LLGFF 5: Enjoy the steam

The BFI 27th Lesbian & Gay Film Festival came to an end on Sunday night with the gala screening of Margarita, a warm comedy-drama from Canada about one of the festival's recurring themes: the rights of gay couples to live together legally (see also I Do, below). The final party was a terrific night of just hanging out with filmmakers, journalists, festival programmers and friends. Here are six more film highlights...

Margarita
dir Dominique Cardona, Laurie Colbert; with Nicola Correia-Damude, Claire Lautier 12/Can ****
Some serious drama and complex interaction adds depth to this breezy romantic comedy. The film feels effortless and perhaps a bit slight, but has plenty of depth to let us see ourselves in each scene. And as its six characters cycle around each other, there's just enough farce to keep us smiling. The plot centres on nanny Margarita (Correia-Damude), who has been part of a Toronto family for six years raising 14-year-old Mali (Maya Ritter) while running the entire household for doctor Gail (Lautier) and dentist Ben (Patrick McKenna). But the economic crunch means that Margarita is being let go, which sparks a crisis for everyone, especially her girlfriend (Christine Horne). Refreshingly, the characters' sexuality is irrelevant in this story of open-minded people who are all seeking the best possible solution, despite their self-interest or inability to let go and ask for help. The filmmakers keep the tone snappy and realistic, allowing the excellent cast to have fun with the relationships. It may be a bit soapy, but it keeps a smile on our faces.

I Do
dir Glenn Gaylord; with David W Ross, Jamie-Lynn Sigler 12/US ***.
Although it's somewhat overcomplicated, this romantic drama touches on some big issues while telling an engaging story about people who hold our attention. At the centre is Jack (Ross), a New York photographer who puts his life on hold to help his widowed sister-in-law Mya (Alicia Witt) raise her daughter. Seven years later he finds out that his visa won't be renewed, sparking a panicky need to stay in the US as he asks work colleague Ali (Sigler) to marry him. Both of them are gay, and things get complicated when he meets a charming Spaniard (Maurice Compte) and starts ignoring Ali. The film is nicely written and directed, with a relaxed pace and grounded characters. And it's nice to see director Gaylord and writer Ross avoid pushy emotions and preachy moralising, although a few plot points strain the realistic tone. Ross is a bit too good-looking at the centre, but his relationships with both Witt and Sigler snap with warmth and awkward edges, while his relationship with Compte is nicely understated. The final act is a little overwrought, with a series of wrenching decisions and difficult ramifications. But in the end we're both entertained and challenged to think about the issues.

Beyond the Walls
dir David Lambert; with Matila Malliarakis, Guillaume Gouix 12/Bel ****.
While it may seem like a trip into a more extreme side of sexuality, this beautifully played Belgian drama is actually a revealing exploration of the push and pull of relationships. Whether you can identify with the details of the story or settings, the ideas and interaction resonate strongly. It's about two men - Paulo and Ilir (Malliarakis and Gouix) who are just starting out a relationship when a twist of fate changes everything. As their new flush of romance is suddenly tested to the limit, Lambert captures the nature of relationships in a way we rarely see on screen, as these two men go through cycles of power and control, devotion and helpless adoration. And while there are moments of gentle humour and warmth, the film is unafraid to head into some very dark corners. Fortunately, the actors remain grounded and raw, creating a genuine sense of chemistry between them. And Lambert refuses to allow us to put them into boxes, playing with the boundaries of relational control is so truthful that it haunts us long after the story ends.

Animals
dir Marcal Fores; with Oriol Pla, Augustus Prew 12/Sp ***
It's difficult to imagine a teen movie much darker than this moving, evocative Spanish film. Although just a bit of lightness might have helped make it more engaging. As is, it's artfully made and packed with solid performances, but so gloomy that it's difficult to identify with the characters. It centres on 17-year-old Pol (Pla), who lives with his big brother (Javier Beltran) and attends an international school with a helpful teacher (Martin Freeman) and two feisty best pals (Dimitri Leonidas and Roser Tapias). Bit it's the new kid in school, Ikari (Prew), who's causing a stir. And Pol's secret crush on him, along with his ongoing struggle with day-to-day events, sends Pol into a private fantasy world in which he is accompanied by his teddy bear as he walks through the woods. Yes, the film is a swirl of internalised fantasy and gritty reality that sometimes doesn't quite gel, and the relentlessly serious tone isn't easy to take. But the beautiful imagery and poetic quality of the filmmaking and acting make it worth a look.

Bwakaw
dir Jun Robles Lana; with Eddie Garcia, Rez Cortez 12/Ph ****.
A charming black comedy, this Filipino drama is packed with vividly memorable characters beautifully played by an exceptional cast. It also touches on some very big issues without ever being preachy about them, quietly stirring our thoughts and emotions with a gentle slice of life. It centres on Rene (Garcia), a retiree who lives alone with his dog Bwakaw. He's "older than the Filipino constitution" and is probably more likely to bite someone than Bwakaw is - everyone knows him as the town grump, as he acerbically insults everyone he meets. Then a series of life and death events begins to eat away at his cynicism, which is a result of a life of suppressed desires; he only admitted to himself that he was gay at age 60 and has never been in love. The film is simply delightful, with moments of raucously incorrect humour balanced by earthy emotion. Everyone in the film is thoroughly enjoyable, including the shifty looking taxi driver (Cortez) who becomes Rene's unlikely friend, a nosey neighbour, a senile ex-girlfriend and the camp cross-dressers at the local hairdressing salon. And as it goes along, it really gets under our skin because we can see so much of ourselves on-screen.

Mr Angel
dir Dan Hunt; with Buck Angel, Elayne Angel 12/US ****
Warm and intimate, and surprisingly inspirational, this snappy little documentary not only chronicles the life of an unapologetic original, but also makes a bold statement about the destructiveness of being forced into one of society's boxes. Buck Angel describes his childhood as a tomboy, then modelling career as a young woman before he became a man and started making porn. But he doesn't have male genitalia, which makes him seriously confusing for people who want to force him into a stereotype. His whole goal is to say, "It's OK not to fit in the box." And he works with his trans wife Elayne to break down barriers. The cameras follow him to Berlin, Vegas and home to Mexico, including footage from his childhood, so we see him age from a young girl into a 40-year-old muscle-man. And along the way, the filmmaker expands his approach to look at other men and women who blur the lines of gender. The result is important and hugely provocative, since it challenges our preconceptions and forces us to accept these people where we understand them or not.

LLGFF 3: Calm before the storm

Filmmakers have flown in from around the world to present their work at the 27th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Yesterday I got the chance to interview actors Michael Aloni and Nicholas Jacob (above) from the Out in the Dark, along with the film's director Michael Mayer, before the UK premiere at the festival last night. They all talked openly about the controversial politics and sexuality that infuse the story - although the interview itself won't run until the film's theatrical release in the UK this summer. More festival highlights...

Out in the Dark
dir Michael Mayer; with Nicholas Jacob, Michael Aloni 12/Isr ****
The violent struggle between Israel and Palestine is highlighted in an unusual way in this gentle romantic thriller. As the events get increasingly nasty, the film isn't easy to watch, and we begin to lose hope for a peaceful solution either for the society or the relationship between two young men: Palestinian Nimr (Jacob) and Jewish Roy (Aloni). And both of them have external stresses - including visa issues, parental pressure and the fact that Nimr's brother is a violent rebel leader. What's most impressive here is that director-cowriter Mayer never lets the politics take centre stage, keeping the story tender and personal. The film is beautifully shot, with sensitive performances that reveal complexities within both the characters and situations. So in the end, both the suspense and the romance hold our interest. And keep us emotionally engaged.

She Male Snails
dir Ester Martin Bergsmark; with Ester Martin Bergsmark, Eli Leven 12/Swe ***
This experimental fantasy-documentary is a somewhat indulgent collection of images and scenes that force us to think about ideas of gender and sexuality. Some of this is quite disturbing, while other moments contain hopeful romanticism and tender observations. And even though it's fascinating, it's also meandering and difficult to engage with. At the centre are filmmaker Bergsmarck and his boyfriend Leven, who both identify themselves as "trans", uncomfortable in their gender. Their goal is to find a way to live in the world, so they adopt what looks like an experimental existence. The original title Pojktanten translates as "boy hag-lady", and both men find inspiration in the hermaphrodite nature of snails. It's lushly shot, with a moody electronic score and somnolent, poetic narration. Artfully recreated flashbacks mix with home movies in an openhanded kaleidoscopic structure. All of which makes the film more like a thought-provoking museum piece than an actual feature film.

United in Anger: A History of Act Up
dir Jim Hubbard; with Gregg Bordowitz, Jim Eigo 12/US ****
The key aspect of this documentary is the way it clearly shows that the Aids devastation in America in the 1980s and 90s wasn't due to a viral infection, but rather to government inaction. And it was only stopped by people who tapped into a rage they didn't know they could possibly muster up. While the Oscar-nominated doc How to Survive a Plague (see below) takes a more personal approach to the same events, this fast-paced film centres on the political outrage that sparked a national movement that actually changed the way the government addressed Aids research and treatment. In addition to footage of each pivotal moment of protest, filmmaker Hubbard makes extensive use of archival interviews with activists who didn't survive the epidemic, adding to the urgency of the period. There are perhaps too many faces on-screen, with too much attention paid to methods and events rather than ideas and feelings. But then this is a vital side of the story, and seeing it laid out so clearly is deeply compelling.

How to Survive a Plague
dir David France; with Larry Kramer, Peter Staley 12/US *****
What does a decent society do to help people who hurt themselves? If you're a smoker, overeater or bad driver, there's plenty of help available. But in America, people who had unsafe sex were left to die: for nearly a decade there was no useful medication to treat Aids. This astounding film documents how grass roots organisations Act Up and TAG forced the US government to show some compassion... REVIEW > 

LLGFF 1: Simply Divine

The British Film Institute's 27th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival kicked off Thursday night with the international premiere of Jeffrey Schwarz's documentary I Am Divine, celebrating the unforgettable star of Pink Flamingoes and Hairspray. Jeffrey was on hand to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards at BFI Southbank, then mix with the opening night crowd at the big party on HMS President, just down the river. The festival is one of the biggest in the UK, and the next 10 days promise a wide range of fascinating films addressing issues of diversity, gender and sexuality from every conceivable angle. Here are a couple of highlights from the first few days, including revivals of two recent releases for appreciative audiences...

I Am Divine
dir Jeffrey Schwarz; with John Waters, Ricki Lake 13/US ****
This fast-paced documentary tells the story of an important artist who changed cinema, music and the theatre forever, but died far too early at age 42 in 1988. Divine (aka Harris Glenn Milstead) was a childhood friend of filmmaker John Waters in Baltimore, and together they took the underground cinema world by storm. As his career grew, Divine's work as an actor became increasingly sophisticated, with breakout roles in Alan Rudolph's Trouble in Mind before the crossover success of Hairspray. Schwarz documents this with energy and plenty of trashy style, interviewing family, friends and costars while also letting us see lots of fabulous film clips, glimpses behind the scenes, archive interviews and never-before-seen performance footage. It's an engaging, funny and surprisingly moving doc that never tries to be anything more than the celebration of an icon.

White Night
dir-scr Leesong Hee-il; with Won Tae-hee, Lee Li-kyung12/Kor ***.
With minimal dialog, this is a film about feelings, focussing intently on its central character's dark reckoning with his own vengeful soul. Wongyu (Won) is a flight attendant based in Germany who returns home to Seoul for the first time in two years to see his ex-boyfriend. But their meeting doesn't go as planned, leaving Won to stew alone over a violent homophobic attack they experienced years earlier. While he plots revenge against the thugs, who have just been released from prison, he has an anonymous sexual encounter with Taejun (Lee) that takes a series of surprising twists over one long night. The film is beautifully shot and edited to force us inside the minds of the characters. This makes the story strongly evocative as these two young men bristle against each other, bringing up sharp, painful memories as well as some tenderness and hope. It's the kind of film that isn't too obsessed with plotting, instead letting the story meander in ways that leave us thinking.

Laurence Anyways
dir Xavier Dolan; with Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clement 12/Can ***. 
With each feature, 23-year-old Dolan gets more ambitious. This third time out, the unusually gifted filmmaker pushes things just over the edge into self-parody, but still tells a powerfully provocative story with a strong emotional undercurrent... REVIEW >

Keep the Lights On
dir Ira Sachs; with Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth 12/US ****
This gorgeously shot and edited film is an incisive exploration of two people struggling to make a relationship work over nearly a decade. Its honest perspective makes it thoroughly involving, even if it turns dreary in the final act... REVIEW >